Richard Jose "The Blind Boy" RARE brown wax countertenor, George H. Chirgwin British music hall song скачать в хорошем качестве

Richard Jose "The Blind Boy" RARE brown wax countertenor, George H. Chirgwin British music hall song

Richard Jose sings "The Blind Boy" on a brown wax cylinder made around 1893. The opening announcement is remarkable--and wrong. The wrong title is cited. Also, Jose did not write the song. It is probably the only surviving of Richard Jose on a brown wax cylinder. Very few copies of any brown wax cylinder title were made. Few are around today. Jose's special countertenor voice--and sentimental lyrics! "The Blind Boy," popular in England, is a song written by R. Lee and G. W. Moore. The song was often performed in England by George H. Chirgwin, called "the White-Eyed Kaffir" (1854-1922). I am but a poor blind boy though my life is full of joy. Though I never saw the light or the flowers that shine so bright, I can hark the bluebird sing and the wild bees on their wings. Birds and bees and summer wind sing to me because I'm blind. They pity me. They pity me because I am blind. With my fingers I can trace Every line on Mother's face Oft her smile upon me beams I can see it in my dreams Father takes me on his knee Brothers Oh so kind to me Sister's arms around me twinned Kisses me because I'm blind. This morning as in bed I lay Mother softly came to pray Said for me such pretty prayers And I felt her holy tears Falling gently down on me And she kissed me, so you see Every one to me is kind And they love me for I'm blind. Jose recorded hymns. topical hits, and tear-jerkers. His last Victor recording session was on September 16, 1909, but nothing was issued from this. His last Victor records are from February, 1906. An injury may account for Jose's recording career being cut short. In 1906 a stage curtain fell on Jose with such force that stitches were required in his scalp. Therese Jose recalls that at this time the singer's "black hair turned perfectly white overnight." (In the late 1940s she had reported to Jim Walsh that the accident occurred in 1905 but she later cited 1906.) At this time he was touring as the head of the Richard J. Jose Grand Concert Company. Around 1915, the K & R Film Company, named after owners Pierce Kingsley and R.R. Roberts, made a six reel film with Jose titled "Silver Threads Among the Gold." In an unusual gimmick during the age of silent pictures, the singer stood in the wings of theaters that showed the film and sang along to match the motion of lips on the screen. Along with the title song, Jose sang "Every Night a Prayer is Said" and "Where Is My Wandering Boy?" This was the company's first film and, on June 5, 1915, it was the first to be shown at Madison Square Gardens as a motion picture theater. The singer's voice must have been powerful to fill this hall. No copy of the movie is known to exist. The film's producers issued in 1915 a publication called The Kanr Journal, and Jim Walsh quotes in the April 1950 issue of Hobbies an article titled "The Life Story of Richard J. Jose." In the 'teens Jose toured with a small company that presented a "pastoral play" titled "Silver Threads." Richard Jose did not leave the theater until 1919, according to Bess Johns, a niece living in Butte, Montana. Richard Jose was the first countertenor to make records, including brown wax cylinders in 1892, such as "Poor Blind Boy." The terms "alto" and "contra-tenor" were used more often in the 1890s than "counter-tenor." Sheet music for Monroe R. Rosenfeld's "Remember Your Father and Mother" (1890) states, "Written for and sung by America's Most Famous Alto, Mr. Richard José." Most of Jose's discs, including the earliest with Monarch and Deluxe labels (Victor used these words on early ten- and twelve-inch discs, respectively), identify him as "counter-tenor" though on some labels Jose is identified as "tenor." Jose was more often billed as a tenor than as a countertenor in minstrel shows. A book titled "Silver Threads Among the Gold in the Life of Richard J. Jose" was self-published by Grace M. Wilkinson. Copyright date is February 8, 1945. Only once does Wilkinson refer to Jose as a countertenor: "His popularity in vaudeville as a contra-tenor was very much like that of Caruso in Italian grand opera." Jose's range is noted: "Mr. Jose's compass was from D above middle C to E above high C." The book also notes that when he sang "Goodbye, Dolly Gray," Jose's principle "working note was high 'D,' two half-steps above the sacred high 'C' of Italian tenordom." He was born in England in a Cornish village, Lanner, on June 5, 1862. Wilkinson refers to a home built in Lanner by Captain James Francis and writes, "In this home, all of Captain Francis' children were born. His daughter, Elizabeth...was now being courted by a young Spanish miner, Richard Jose. His ancestors had come from Spain to work in the tin mines at Cornwall." Jose's baptismal record is dated September 17, 1862. The surname is "Joce" (a phonetic spelling). Richard Jose senior was a copper miner who died in late 1876. The son traveled to Nevada to locate an uncle.